Latest update: 05/13/2025
We continue to support their immediate needs and long-term well-being—especially as Syria’s national child protection systems remain fragile and overwhelmed. We also deeply empathize with families searching for their children and stand ready to support them.
During the Syrian war, many children were unnecessarily separated from their families by authorities and placed into care settings, often without proper documentation. In this time of extraordinary instability, these placements reflected the absence of a child protection system grounded in international standards—particularly the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the U.N. Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children.
SOS Children’s Villages unequivocally disapproves of such placement practices, and we acknowledge that, in this context, SOS Children’s Villages received children who had been separated from their families without the necessary documentation. We also recognize that, despite our best intentions, not all decisions made during this time met the high standards to which we hold ourselves. Learning from these shortcomings, we have taken active steps to ensure this does not happen again. It is our firm belief that children should never be separated from their families unless it is in their best interest—and only through a documented, child-centered process.
We took decisive action in 2018 to halt placements without proper documentation. Since 2020, under the leadership of a new National Director, SOS Children’s Villages Syria improved operations through stronger alignment with international child protection and safeguarding standards and significantly strengthened transparency for its activities in Syria. Additionally, the President of the Board of SOS Children’s Villages Syria stepped down on May 1, 2025, to allow ongoing and impending investigations to proceed without any impediment.
To support ongoing family tracing and reunification efforts, we have implemented a comprehensive review of records and set up a reporting channel for inquiries regarding children who may have been placed in our programs. Findings from our review have already enabled us to respond more effectively to these inquiries.
According to the findings from our review, 139 children without proper documentation were placed in interim alternative care at SOS Children’s Villages in Syria between 2013 and 2018.
Of the 139 placements:
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34 children were reunited with their families.
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104 children were referred back to the authorities.
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One child was referred to a disability center.
The placements of children in interim alternative care were primarily part of our Humanitarian Response Program during the war, aimed at protecting unaccompanied and separated children, and some were imposed upon us by the authorities at the time. While in our care, the children received support consistent with our principles of safety and well-being.
Importantly, we are actively collaborating on the ground with government institutions, communities, intergovernmental and humanitarian organizations to support transparent tracing processes and enable family reunification. Findings from our review have been shared with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. The Damascus Prosecutor has also initiated investigations into unresolved cases of missing children, upon our request. These efforts are rooted in our unwavering belief that children belong with families, and separation should only ever be a last resort.
Our presence in Syria since 1975 reflects a deep, enduring commitment to children—especially during periods of conflict and upheaval. In the darkest moments of the war, when many organizations left the country, we stayed. Despite the enormous challenges, including relations with the government at the time, this was a deliberate decision made with children’s best interests at heart.
SOS Children’s Villages International does not align itself with any political entities or regimes. In everything we do—and every decision we make—in each country and territory where we work, the rights, safety and dignity of children and young people remain our moral compass. Working in conflict environments with weak national child protection systems poses exceptional challenges—and we continue to learn from these experiences to the benefit of all our work worldwide.
As the world’s largest organization supporting children without parental care or at risk of losing it, our work is grounded in the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. We will continue standing with children and young people in Syria and in over 130 countries and territories where we work—protecting them and helping them grow with the bonds they need to thrive.